As I applied the staples to the insulation on the walls of the building, I thought, "I'm going to get a lot done this weekend." I had pulled a drop cord up the hill and I had my blower heater working and most of the supplies I needed were already in place. Even though the heat seeped out the metal building almost as fast as the blower could deliver it, just having a warm spot available gives a big psychological boost.

I already had the better part of two walls covered, so Ihad good reason for optimism.

However, right around lunch time Ireceived a phone call that ended up changing my direction.

My friend asked, "Remember when you said we could use your trailer to help move? Can you come with it?"

Well, I first had to get the trailer ready to go. I had been procrastinating on installing some braces on one of the walls and also on trying to get a few other odds and ends done. Up until about two weeks prior to the call, the trailer, an enclosed unit some 20 feet long, had been a storage unit for most of my tools and such.

Dropping the task at hand, I set about figuring out my new challenge, only to realize that the trailer's light wiring harness was not compatible with the one on my truck.

Never one to give up easily, Isoon had that figured out piecemeal and moved on to the next challenge, getting the braces installed on one wall. Flying by the seat of my pants, I found two corner brackets that fit nicely and attached them to the wall. After a few tests, I was very pleased with the result.

Even though I'd had the trailer tagged for several months, it was the first time that Ihad taken it out on the road since the day I pulled it home. As you might can imagine, the tires aren't all that great after sitting, but they appeared to be adequate.

After making sure everything appeared road-worthy, my next challenge came in trying to get the trailer to the road.

Since my truck is an extended cab long-bed, it isn't exactly a short package. When adding in a 20-foot trailer, the whole thing is nearly unmanageable in tight spaces. Instead of taking a chance on getting stuck somewhere trying to turn around, Idecided to back out the road to the highway.

It worked out after only a couple of corrections. I hadn't pulled such a large trailer in a quite a while, so I was very pleased that I was able to control it.

Since most of the day moving furniture would require backing in to one place and then another, it gave me a boost of confidence.

However, it didn't help that one of the other fellows helping was a former truck driver. He abstained from making fun of me overtly, at least, but I'm quite sure he sniggered a few times while Iwas trying to line up the trailer with the front porch at the first stop.

Since the trailer is almost as wide as the highway from yellow line to white line, my usual habit of hugging the ditchline had to be somewhat amended as well. But overall, I didn't have much trouble. Once we arrived, I realized that very little of the moving process had actually started beforehand. I pack only slightly more gently than a bull in a china shop, so I had definite concerns about moving anything made of glass, porcelain, or basically any material softer than iron.

In their defense, one of my friends is on disability for health problems and his wife isn't exactly an Olympic athlete after suffering a bout with cancer.

As it turned out, we carried couches, bedroom furniture, desks, tables and even kitchen cabinets. Somehow, despite the fact that I shuffled quite a bit of breakable stuff from one place to another, I avoided destroying anything.

When I move, I usually carefully wrap the sentimental, valuable and breakable items and then sweep everything else off the top of the furniture into a box, toss it to the truck and move on to the next piece. Therefore, it's generally advisable to have any breakable items placed somewhere else prior to having me come over.

It was an easy move for the most part, since they lived in a fairly small house and didn't have a great number of heavy appliances or furniture. Best of all, they didn't own a piano.

The first load of stuff we moved was carried with everything still in place. For instance, a large bedroom cabinet was taken out with clothing still inside and most of the furniture was carried with the drawers and their contents still inside. Luckily, we had a hand truck to use for some of the heaviest items.

While moving dressers full of clothing wasn't much of a problem for my friend, the former truck driver and professional furniture mover who now works on a loading dock for a living and is roughly the size of a professional wrestler, I don't mind admitting that Ihad real concerns about my personal health and well-being.

Perhaps my grunting noises as we lifted individual pieces gave me away. However, knowing furniture moving etiquette, Ididn't complain outright about the weight of anything.

It's really strictly forbidden in the masculine code to complain about the difficulty of work, unless it's something extreme—like loading pianos. Everyone complains about that.

We managed to haul about two-thirds of everything in the first trailer load and then we returned the following day with my pickup to haul two more truckloads to finish it off.

They still have lots of little stuff left to move, but the biggest part of it is already gone.

In looking around at the chaos —both at the house they were leaving and the one they were moving in—I would have been overwhelmed. Of course, I'm always amazed by the chaos of moving.

It always starts the same. Some of their first boxes were neatly labeled and stacked in the appropriate rooms. The later boxes were unlabeled and stacked up wherever someone could find an empty spot on the floor. The final stuff ends up carried in trash bags or laundry baskets or whatever else someone can stuff it in. Maybe they'll get it all put back together before Easter.

Since I've traditionally moved at least every four years, Ican sympathize. But it's good to move often, since it sometimes takes that long to find or replace the stuff lost during the last move.